Italy could give its banking system a shot in the arm and shares went crazy

Three
Italy soccer fans wearing bodysuits in the colours of the Italian
national flag, pose for a photo before the Euro 2012 final
against Spain at the Olympic stadium in Kiev July 1,
2012.Reuters/Alessandro
Bianchi

Italian banking stocks went crazy on Friday — leading Italy's
benchmark FTSE MIB index higher — after reports that the Italian
government could step in to shore up the country's banking
sector.

Banks in Italy have been getting crushed since the start of 2016,
amid fears about weaknesses in the country's banking system and
levels of bad debt held by the banks.

However, this week the Italian government met with chief
executives from banks, with the aim of finding a solution to the
banking system's issues.

Leading the gains on the day was Banca Popolare Emilia
Romagna, which is up more than 14%, closely followed
by Banco Popolare Societa Cooperativa, which gain
nearly 11% on the day. Here's how shares in both looked just
at the European close:

Investing.com

Investing.com

Here's the scoreboard for the rest of the country's
banks:

Unicredit — up 9.72%

Intesa Sanpaolo — up 6.01%

Banca Monte dei Paschi Siena — up 7.89%

Banca di Milano Scarl — up 10.93%

UBI Banca — up 8.75%

The banks gains in turn helped drag the FTSE MIB up massively,
and the index gained more than 3.7% on the day, by far the best
performing index on the continent. Here's how that looked:

Investing.com

However, it isn't just Italy where bank stocks are popping. In
Britain, RBS, Lloyds, and Barclays are up 1.93%, 1.53%, and 2.52%
respectively, while in Germany, Deutsche Bank is up 1.56% and
Commerzbank 3.07%.